Challenge Day 1: Rainbow

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I had a great time Trick-or-Treating with A & B, and there is definitely too much candy in this house now. I think I may have to "help" A out by eating some *cough*most*cough* of it. Too much candy is un-healthy, and we definitely don't want that, do we? The things we do for our kids, right ;) I am so excited that Day One of the November 10-day Challenge is here! How fun!

The theme for Day 1 is Rainbow.
I know a lot of people think stripes or blocks of color for rainbow, and I wanted to be different, so I went with polka dots!

Are you ready for it?

What's that you ask? Why, yes, I DID hand-place each of those dots! I had so much fun with this one, I think this may be my favorite manicure I've ever done.

The base for this is China Glaze White on White, the rainbow colors are Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi, Zoya Arizona, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, Ulta Limelight, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple, all topped with Seche Vite! I started with yellow in the middle of each nail and worked my way out, and I decided to flip the rainbow pattern on my accent finger to keep things interesting :)

Can't wait to see what the other lovely ladies in the challenge have come up with! Follow the links down below to see their entries as well :)

Next challenge: Polka dots! Stay tuned!

-Kara

Orange and Black Halloween Mani

I have a quick one for you tonight. In honor of Halloween, the color of the week this week is orange. I don't own many oranges, and I didn't want to do the basic orange with black stamping, so my options are limited. I wanted something fun and different, I pulled out my giant black glitters.

Here's the final product:

Zoya Arizona

This is 2 coats of Zoya Arizona, I placed the glitters while it was still wet, then covered in two coats of Seche Vite.

Happy Halloween!

-Kara

Get ready for the November 10-Day Challenge!

Hey, just wanted to give you all the heads up that starting November 1, I will be participating in a November 10-Day Nail Art Challenge put on by the lovely and talented Erica from Erica's Nails & More.

Here is the 10-day breakdown so you know what to expect:

I am super excited to be participating in my very first Challenge, and can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! I'm already toying with some ideas in my head, and I'm ready to start!

So make sure you keep checking back throughout November to see my entries.

Wish me luck!

-Kara

Let's Celebrate with a Giveaway!

The next couple weeks are going to be very bitter-sweet for me. My wonderful baby, B, will be turning one year old on November 11. It's hard to believe how fast she's grown up, I need to stop denying it and accept we're already well into the toddler stage. It may be sad to see my little baby growing up so fast, but it's also very exciting watching her grow, she's becoming such a fun little person with her own personality growing each day!

In celebration of B's first year of life, I will be hosting my very first Giveaway!

One winner will be randomly selected to win the full Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn nail polish set.

Edward's Love is a black polish loaded with silver flakies and pink and green micro-shimmer

Alice Had A Vision - Again is a deep dark purple with tiny purple and blue flakies

A Piece of Forever is a yellow-gold. I've read it works great for stamping

Jacob's Protection is black base with blue, purple, and green micro-glitter

So there it is, the big prize for B's Birthday :)

Rules:

Unfortunately, for this one, I'm going to have to limit the contest to  USA only. In the future, I will open it up, but for now, we need to stay local. Sorry :(

Winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday, November 11th. Winner will be emailed, and will have 24 hours to reply with their address


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Candy Corn Nails

Happy Saturday everyone! I took my daughters to a Halloween scavenger hunt at the zoo today, A was dressed as Clifford the Big Red Dog, and B was a bumble bee - so cute! Anyway, since I don't dress up for Halloween, I got into the spirit the way I do best. Nails!

I know Candy Corn nails have been done a thousand times, but it's so fun, I had to jump on the band wagon :)

It's far from perfect, but it's still fun. A was thrilled with this mani and had a blast pretending to eat my fingers.

For this, I used Scotch tape, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and Zoya Arizona, all topped with Seche Vite. This mani took much longer than I had anticipated, since you have to let each color dry completely before applying the tape, or the whole thing would get messed up, and I got a little impatient by the time I got to the orange stripe, and my tape application was a little sloppy.

I got tons of complements on this mani, it just makes my day when people notice my nails :)

What is your favorite Halloween manicure?

-Kara

A-England, at last!

How's everyone? Ready for the weekend? I have a fun, but very busy Halloween weekend planned for myself and the kiddos, can't wait to let them play in a bowl of pumpkin guts :)

Today I have a couple swatches for you. I still can't believe I was able to get my hands on these, I have been drooling over them ever since I first started my polish obsession!

First, we have the lovely Guinevere. Guinevere is from A-England's Mythicals collection.  It is described as an "antique  pale mauve", and it is very pretty. I just love this color!

A-England Guinevere

It's nothing we haven't seen as far as color, in fact I have a couple of polishes that are very similar in my own stash, but I love it anyway.

Next, is Tristam, and ZOMG is it fabulous! Tristam is described as "night blue sky with starlight glimmer and glow", which means it's a deep blue with scattered holographic micro-glimmer. I love this polish so much. So much. If I ever have a boy, I'm naming him Tristam after this polish. I'm just kidding...or am I?

A-England Tristam

Gorgeous, right? You should see it in person. I really wish it had been sunny today, I would love to see what sunlight does to this!

So there you have it, my new loves. Which A-England is your favorite?

-Kara

The Velvet Manicure

Today I have something very special manicure for you. Not only is it Pink Wednesday, but this is my very first try at the newly popular Velvet Manicure.  And not only is it pink and velvet, it is also budget friendly! Yay! I'm sure you've heard of the expensive brand that sells the tiny containers of crushed velvet and microbeads for fish-egg manicures (you can see I'm doing my very best not to write their name, nor their copyrighted term for the fish-egg). Anywho, instead of buying that tiny bottle of very expensive crushed velvet, head on over to your local craft store and pick up some flocking powder. Flocking powder comes in tons of colors and it's cheap. I got mine from ebay, $2 for an ounce.

So here it is, my first velvet mani!

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

I was originally going to use OPI Mod About You, but decided that if it was just going to be "glue" for the flocking powder, I'd use something cheap. I used two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pink Blink, and it ended up being a perfect match for the color of my flocking powder! While the second coat was still wet, I firmly placed my finger in a bowl of flocking powder, then pressed it into the nail. Voila! Easy!

Here are some more pictures!

Velvet Manicure

Close up

This mani is a hit around my house tonight, I like it - it's so different, and I feel very high fashion - and both kids love it - it's so soft! It's also very durable. it has lasted through dinner, bathtime and bed for the kids no problem. I was afraid that getting it wet would mess it up, but it dries perfectly. This is a surprisingly no-fuss mani.

What do you think of the Velvet Manicure trend? Will you be trying this yourself?

-Kara

Yellow is the color of the week

Good evening! Sorry I didn't post at all this weekend, but I managed to catch the "death flu" (as I like to call it) and couldn't even bring myself to paint my nails. Yes, it was *that* bad, I had naked nails all weekend! Luckily, it seems to have passed quickly, and I'm well enough to do my nails again.

The "Powers That Be" have decreed that this week's color of the week is Yellow. I'm not a huge fan of yellow nail polish on me, it doesn't really agree with my skin tone, but I'll give it a whirl!

 

 

Sally Hansen + Floam = glitter gradient

This is technique is called a glitter gradient, and instead of your usual glitter, I used Floam! Fun, right? 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, Floam for the glitter, topped with Seche Vite. I probably should have used 2 coats of Seche Vite, but, oh well.

What's your favorite yellow polish?

-Kara

Half Moons

I've been feeling particularly frustrated today, both girls are sick, and I am exhausted. I was feeling like this was the longest day ever, so when I FINALLY got them to take a nap, I decided to do my nails early (it's still light out!) and do something extra fancy to boost my spirits. Wat's that you say? I should have napped, too? Well, yes, I probably should have, haha, but this is so much more fun to blog about :)

I've been wanting to try half moons for a while now, but have never actually gotten around to it, until now!

Half Moons

This is 2 coats of Essie No Place Like Chrome with 1 coat of China Glaze For Audrey, all topped off with Seche Vite

Essie No Place Like Chrome & China Glaze For Audrey

Pretty, huh? I am so pleased with this mani, I just can't stop staring at it!

What do you think?

-Kara

Are You Red-y For This?

I had long ago given up on reds, they just looks terrible with my skin tone, so when I was given Head Mistress by Essie, I put it away and promptly for got about it. Then today I was having a conversation about red polish with a dear friend, and she suggested I find a blue-toned red. Wouldn't you know, I had one sitting around un-used and un-loved, so I decided to try it out, and I am so glad that I did!

Essie Head Mistress & Essie Penny Talk

This is two coats of Essie Head Mistress, stamped with Essie Penny Talk using Vivid Lacquer plate V001, all topped off with Seche Vite. Isn't it beautiful?

Here's a photo without so much glare on the accent nails:

Vivid Lacquer V001 Stamping plate

Let me just say, I love this stamping plate! How cute are those little skull & crossbones?

What's your favorite shade of red?

-Kara

Facebook!

Now you can Like Never Gonna Give You Up on Facebook! Here!

-Kara

Floam

I am so excited to show you a new Indie, well, it's been out there a while, but it's new to me! Floam by Nail-venturous and bottled by Ninja Polish. This is a beautiful, and very unique, polish. Tiny green and blue neon matte glitter in a clear base -and it's 4-free! This means no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (dbp), and formaldehyde resin, which means it's much less toxic, and better for the health of your nails.

Floam is pretty thick, but it's not difficult to work with at all, just be sure to let each coat dry completely before adding each additional coat. On it's own, Floam dries matte and with a bumpy/sandy texture. Textured nails are very in right now, so you can wear it naturally, or you can load on the topcoat for a smooth, shiny finish.

Nail-venturous Floam

This is 3 coats of Floam, and it's quite the topcoat eater, so use your cheaper stuff! Mine is topped with 4 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Clearly Quick.

Isn't it awesome? Check out this extreme close up:

Micro

Amazing stuff, totally unique!

You can get at Ninja Polish for $9.00

What do you think of Floam? Leave a comment, I love to hear from you!

-Kara

It's Green Week!

Hey everyone, hope everyone is well! Had an exciting day with the kids today, A's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch this morning, so B and I joined in the Fall Harvest fun! Had a hay ride, got good and lost in the corn maze, bought a bunch of pumpkins, squash, and apples, and A even got a pony ride! She was ecstatic! So adorable.

On to business, I realize that today is Wednesday, and you're probably expecting a Pink Wednesday post. I had a pink mani all planned out, but in reality it was a fail. Multiple nails got smudged, I did my best to fix them, then the stamping image transfer didn't go so well, so I scrapped it altogether.

The powers that be (you know who you are) have decided that this week's theme is Green, so I did a green mani instead. Now, I'm not a fan of green nail polish, and I don't own many, so I was pretty limited on what to do with this one, but I think it turned out well! I already used one of my greens earlier this week for the Dragon mani, so I pulled out a new one I've not tried before.

Orly Jealous, Much? & Claire's Written in the Stars

This is 2 coats of Orly Jealous, Much? that came in the Cool Romance 6 pack. I didn't love this. It's pretty watery and streaky. Sheer in some places, opaque in others, it's sticky, and takes forever to dry! Then I added a layer of Claire's Written in The Stars, a fun glitter topcoat with different sizes of silver holographic glitters with large blue star glitters. Gorgeous, but very hard to get any stars, I had to dig and dig and dig, and finally use my dotting tool to fish out each star and place them by hand.

This was kind of a fussy mani for me, but it turned out pretty, I think.

What's your favorite green polish? Let me know in the comments :)

-Kara

Rebranding

It has been brought to my attention that there is another nail blog called Nailed It, and because I'm not trying to take any readers from her (in case they think I am her), I will be re-naming my blog.

This has been really hard for me, I've been thinking about this for over a week now, and every time I think I've come up with something great, it's already taken *sad face*

However, inspiration has hit! Welcome to Never Gonna Give You Up! A blog about my nail polish obsession/addiction! I am loving my new name, and I hope you do as well. A & I have been dancing around the house singing the Rick Astley song for the last 20 minutes having so much fun! I am now upbeat and excited for the new name! My url will stay the same, so please come find me here at nailedit2.blogspot.com and welcome to the NEW Never Gonna Give You Up!

And you're welcome for getting that song stuck in your head :)

-Kara

"What's In My Bag" Tag!

I have been tagged by the amazing Alison over at therosysnail.com, so here it is: What's In My Bag?

So, bear with me, I'm a mother of two young kids, so my bag is actually... a diaper bag. A very nice diaper bag, but a diaper bag nonetheless. It's a Petunia Pickle Bottom in case you were wondering.

 Here it is, my diaper bag. The first thing I always try to carry with me, is water, I don't drink nearly enough water so I try to compensate by carrying around a bottle of it like I'm a responsible person who takes care of herself.

Next is the obvious baby stuff: diapers, wipes, snacks, and a toy for each kid.

Here is my coupon binder, a small first aid kit, some disinfecting wipes for shopping carts, highchairs, etc, some hand sanitizer, a mini Kleenex pack, some Acetaminophen, teething tablets, and some vitamin c tablets because the kids have been fighting colds.

On to MY stuff - yay! My wallet (fossil brand, I love this wallet!) my sunglasses, phone, some Kohl's cash I found stuffed in the side pocket (yay!), my iPod - I live 20 min from town, and if I have to listen to The Wheels On the Bus or Five Little Ducks one more time, I'll throw up, so I listen to audiobooks. I just finished Game of Thrones and started Fall of Giants (in case you were wondering :p ), and the pink zipper pouch that holds all my makeup and misc stuffs.

Here is a peek inside :)

And the contents. I have some lipsticks, lip balms, and lip glosses at all times. Like I said, I don't drink enough water, so I am in constant need of something on my lips. The specific lip products change all the time but today it is Tarte LipSurgence in Perky,- I own 4 of these, and this is by far my favorite color, LypSyl lip balm - this came in my VoxBox last month, and I am hooked, NYX "mood" lipgloss in Affectionate, Mally high Shine Lip Color in Mally's Look - another absolute favorite, and Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait. Next I have a mini glass file and wooden cuticle stick, a pen, a mini sunscreen for the baby, bobby pins, a hair tie, tweezers, rewetting drops for my contacts, a mini lotion (again, not enough water, so this is a must have), a travel hair brush, makeup for touch-ups, a mini-mirror, and Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple butter...for my cuticles! It works really well, so I carry this with me and keep my Lush cuticle butter by my bed at home.

So, that is what's in my (diaper) bag! Thanks so much to Alison from The Rosy Snail for tagging me, this was a lot of fun!

What must-haves do you keep in your bag?

Here are the other ladies participating in this tag - go see what's in their bag!

The Rosy Snail
No Bottle Left Behind
Red Polish or Bad Polish
The Semi-Charmed Diaries
Renolyn
Beauty With a Passion
Fiorella's Closet
Just One More Bottle
...And Then There Was Polish

-Kara

Dragon!

Tonight I wanted to do a mani that my 3 year old would love, and that used some new glitter I picked up at Michaels last night. Let me just warn you - you're going to love this. Really. It's so fun, and pretty unique in my opinion. At least I didn't see anything like it on Pinterest. So I give you... The Dragon!

Dragon nails!

Roar!

Nicole by OPI Mer-Maid For each Other

Aaaand, here is one of B trying to steal my Seche Vite bottle while I'm taking the photos. Hi, B!

This is 2 coats of Nicole by OPI Mer-Maid For Each Other, for the accent nail, for the scales, I applied each glitter individually with my dotting tool while the second coat was still wet, topped with Seche Vite, and then added the googly eyes to my thumb while the SV was still wet.

This mani was so much fun to make, I know A is going to love it, B already loves it, she keeps trying to pick the eyes off, haha, and I hope you love it, too! Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

-Kara

Fun with Victoriana

Today was such a hectic day for me, it was an in-service day, so A didn't have preschool and B decided she was not going to take a nap today. At all. So once I finally got everyone into bed, I reached for a favorite polish for a pick me up.

Butter London Victoriana is a beautiful blue-teal packed with silver micro-glitter, and, man, is it gorgeous!

Butter London Victoriana

See what I mean? Gorgeous! Ahhh, I feel better already!

But I couldn't stop there, it's not even midnight, after all, and tomorrow just wouldn't be right if I actually had enough sleep, so...

Konad m64

This is 2 coats of Victoriana, 1 coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy, then I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep with Konad plate m64. Phew, that was quite a mouth full!

I hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I enjoyed making it!

What's your go-to color when you need a pick-me-up?

-Kara

Jawbreaker

Good morning everybody!

I spent yesterday swatching every polish I own onto nail wheels, and apparently I am addicted to dark colors, especially blues! So, to break out of my dark color funk, I put back the polish I was going to wear today and picked out something light and fun. I present to you Pretty and Polished Jawbreaker!

Pretty and Polished Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker is a milky white jelly  with multiple sizes and shapes of red, blue, green, purple and gold matte glitter - I love the red squares! I used 2 coats of Jawbreaker over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On to give it a more bright opaque white look instead of a milky jelly look, topped with Seche Vite. Sorry I'm not holding the Jawbreaker bottle - it's a mini and looks very wonky to hold in pictures.

Jawbreaker is my first and only Indie/Franken, and I am loving it! So fun and different.

Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you! What is your favorite Indie/Franken polish? 

-Kara

In the Mood for polish

I hope everyone is well today! I'm a little emotional because my baby is 11 months old today - it goes by so fast! Since she's walking already, I suppose that makes her a toddler already *ack*!

Today I'm swatching MOOD color changing nail polish from Claire's. This is dark shimmery blue with a satin finish that changes to purple. Supposedly. Here's the bottle and swatch:

mood polish

This is two coats of polish, no top coat:

mood polish

Pretty, huh? Let's check out the color change! Sat with my hand in cold water, nothing. Okay, let's try hot water then. And...

 

Really? That's it? Let's compare...

My ring and middle finger in hot water and my ring and pinky in cold water for a side by side. Where's the purple? I don't get it.

Fun idea, but save your money and skip the Claire's brand mood polish!

Til next time!

-Kara

On Wednesdays we wear pink

Welcome to my very first Pink Wednesday! In my excitement, I *may* have gone overboard, but, oh well :)

I want to apologize in advance for the state of my cuticles, I've been working in the garage for the last two days and it's really reeking havoc on them.

Anyway, here it is:

Pink french tips

Pink Wednesday nails

This is two coats of OPI Mod About You, the tips are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Presto Pink, Sally Girl In Love on the accent nails - it's hard to tell in the pictures, but this is a pink glitter, all topped with Seche Vite.

Hope you enjoyed my first Pink Wednesday! I certainly loved doing it.

What’s your favorite pink polish?

-Kara

China Glaze Purr-fect Plum

I didn't have time to write a blog post about yesterday's polish, so I am going to do a quickie one now because I love this color so much!

Here is 2 coats of China Glaze Purr-fect Plum from the Safari Collection. The plan was to stamp on it, but I loved it so much I couldn't bring myself to do it! So here it is :

-Kara

Butter London comparison

So I was looking at my untrieds stash, trying to decide what I wanted to wear tonight, and I grabbed Butter London All Hail the Queen and thought "heyyyy, this looks familiar... do I have a dupe on my hands?" Let's compare, shall we?

Here we have it, Butter London All Hail the Queen and Essence Special Effects Topper Holo Topping, Please!

Butter London All Hail the Queen & Essence Special Effects Topper

 Look pretty close in the bottle, huh?  Here's a closer look.

So I swatched them on two of my nails to see...

 This is 3 coats of All Hail the Queen on the middle finger (top finger in the top picture, on the right below)  and 3 coats of Essence on the ring finger

So, no, not a dupe. Not even close! Amazing how different they can look from the bottle!

-Kara

Essence Special Effects Toppers

I stopped by the Essence display the other day and I picked up 3 of their new Special Effects Toppers, and I thought I'd tell you a little about them. I was so excited to find these and I couldn't wait to try them out, so I just put them on over what I already had on - Orly Decoded - two coats of each.

On my ring finger (top finger in picture) is Glowing in the Dark. I was pleased to see that, even though in the bottle it looks a tad purple, it didn't change the color of the polish I had on. I was, however, very disappointed to find that it doesn't actually glow in the dark. Apparently it only glows under a black light. Which I do not have.

On my middle finger is a flaky! It's called Night in Vegas, and it is fantastic. This is actually my first flaky, though I've been eying them forever.

Finally, on my ring finger (bottom finger) is Holo Topping, Please! I was super excited to see a holo topcoat, but in real life, I was very disappointed. It's got micro scattered holo, but you can barely see the base polish color through it, which, in my opinion, doesn't make it a very good topper! Maybe they should sell it as a holographic polish instead?

So, there you have it, my new Essence Special Effects Toppers!

-Kara

Fun with China Glaze and Wet n Wild

 My mani tonight started off using another polish from my "untrieds" stash. China Glaze Fifth Avenue is a beautiful dusty rose creme polish. I was a-mazed at how well it went on, so smooth, and perfectly opaque after only one coat!

This polish is really beautiful in real life, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit, so I added a layer of another from my untrieds stash : Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana, a pink scattered holographic topper. Tah-dah! Two birds with one stone!

Ahhhh, much better :)

-Kara